President & COO on how they are able to better serve their clients
At Alta West Capital, the message is simple: people come first. From clients to employees, Jared Morrison (pictured) believes that if employees are happy, clients are also happy.
Alta West Capital has been in operation for more than 30 years. Morrison, president & COO, explained the mortgage lender has grown over the years to better understand what it needs, and what it can do well for clients.
Going into his own history, Morrison said the reason he quit being a bank manager early in his career is simple: he loves getting people into houses, and he can do that with Alta West Capital.
“I loved it when a young couple would come in and they had these dreams and they wanted to buy a house, and you helped them put that mortgage together – let’s be honest, nobody wants the mortgage, they want the house, but you were a key part of that transaction,” he said.
After realizing he wanted to help people achieve their dreams and get them into their home, he got back into mortgages with Alta West Capital in 2007, which had gone through the same growth he did.
“The company’s gone through that same growth, where we’ve determined that instead of doing this wide array of things, let’s just help a couple of groups of people, and help them achieve their dreams,” he said, adding one group in particular they’ve helped move into their home is immigrants.
An immigrant himself, Morrison noted two-thirds of their staff are first- and second-generation immigrants, with people from Egypt, England, New Zealand, China, Cambodia, the Philippines, Italy, and more.
“The list goes on and on. So, over the last couple of years, the company has really started to realize that helping new Canadians into homes was a real sweet spot, and it helped these new residents, but it did something for us as well,” he said. “Employees at the company really start to realize, ‘Hey, that’s me.’”
His own experience as an immigrant has helped Morrison to be more empathetic towards those who have moved to Canada and have made their new home here, acknowledging that his experience is different from many others.
“How tough must it be coming from a country where maybe English or French isn’t your first language, and the process might not be quite a match with the western way of banking, and all of this struggle you must go to when all you want to do is buy a house. You just want to do a simple thing that Canadians do regularly,” he said.
Over the last five years, he said Alta West Capital has realized the company is good at getting new Canadians into houses, and it has sparked a fire under a lot of employees’ feet. This has allowed many employees to line up their moral values with their business values, and this can spark a lot of passion.
“We can all see ourselves helping someone like us,” he said.
Morrison is finding now that whether an employee works in the investor relations team, underwriting, or mortgage administration, they all see the parallels between what they do, and helping people.
When you line all of that up, it works, and Morrison says this allows employees to come into work and know why they’re doing what they’re doing, which further helps to motivate them to do better for their clients.
“I’m helping another Canadian get into a house. I’m helping a Canadian grow their business – take even a bit of equity out of their mortgage to invest in their business, which will then grow their business, support them, their family, and maybe they’ll have some employees with families of their own, or I’m helping somebody work towards their retirement,” he said.
Once that’s all lined up, it starts to show the employees at Alta West Capital why they do what they do, which really helps the company to grow and take off.
In the end Morrison acknowledges payroll is important, but today it’s just as important to have another reason why they’re being motivated.
“Once you get all of that and point all of that in the right direction, then the staff start working for each other. They don’t work for me, they help each other out,” he said.
For Morrison and Alta West, it is absolutely about the people, and it comes down to their four stakeholders: staff, brokers, borrowers, and investors. They’re all equally important, and Morrison needs all four to work well together.
“When an employee comes in for a one-on-one or an annual review, I’ll ask them: ‘What are you going to do this year?’ and they’ll start with the same thing and get into their business objectives. I’ll say, ‘Stop. I didn’t ask you what’re you going to do for the company this year. I asked what are you going to do this year? What’s on your goals? What’s on your radar?’ I’m not saying I can always help or the company can always help, but if I understand what’s driving them, what’s motivating them, then maybe we can slot it in,” he explained.
While they aren’t always able to do that, he noted at least the employees are aware that he and the company care about their wants and needs.
“Money, holidays, all of that’s important. But give them a little bit in their day that excites them, it’s way better for them, and its way better for the company as well,” he said.
